Halter, ASU near deal on education-plan name change

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Halter’s campaign would be required to refer to Halter’s proposal to build upon the Arkansas Academic Challenge Scholarship as the “Arkansas Promise Plan” rather than the “Arkansas Promise” under a proposal submitted by Arkansas State University President Chuck Welch to the former lieutenant governor.

Halter’s campaign has agreed to the terms of the proposal dated June 17 and hasn’t indicated that Halter won’t sign the agreement, though ASU hasn’t received a signed copy of the agreement from Halter, ASU System spokesman Jeff Hankins said Tuesday.

But Halter spokesman Bud Jackson said Tuesday night that the proposal doesn’t reflect previous discussions between Halter and Welch.

“It’s just a matter of the lawyers getting it right,” Jackson said. “Once the lawyers get their act together, we should be all right.”

Hankins said Welch expected the lawyers for both sides to work out the details of thedeal, and Welch thought the proposal reflected an agreement between the lawyers.

On March 18, Halter proposed the Arkansas Promise to pay college tuition for Arkansas high school graduates who maintain a 2.5 grade-point average, attend college in the state and qualify for the Academic Challenge Scholarship, sometimes referred to as the lottery scholarship.

The program would pay up to the tuition level at the state’s highest-cost, four-year public university, without raising taxes, by combining the lottery scholarship, federal grant aid, more private scholarships, charitable support and $50 million to $75 million more a year in state general revenue, according to Halter.

That led ASU to warn Halter that it owns the trademark to the Arkansas Promise Scholarship and threaten to “take steps to protect the mark” if Halter continued to use the “Arkansas Promise” term. But Jackson countered a month and a half ago that Halter’s Arkansas Promise plan is not a scholarship and does not interfere with ASU’s trademark.

The Jonesboro school has been offering the Arkansas Promise Scholarship to Academic Challenge Scholarship recipients since the fall of 2010, according to Welch.

A copy of Welch’s proposal emerged in Hankins’ response to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette request under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

Under the proposal signed by Welch, ASU and Halter’s campaign would agree that the state has granted ASU “a state service mark registration” for the Arkansas Promise Scholarship, and Halter’s campaign “will change the name of its message from ‘Arkansas Promise’ to ‘Arkansas Promise Plan.’”

Halter’s campaign would provide a disclaimer about the Arkansas Promise Plan if the communications are more than 200 words or more than30 seconds in length, according to the proposal. The disclaimer would state, “The Arkansas Promise Plan is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Arkansas Promise Scholarship or Arkansas State University.”

“Nothing in this agreement constitutes an admission of wrongdoing by the campaign,” the proposal states. “ASU hereby releases and forever discharges the campaign from, and agrees not to sue the campaign for any and all claims for damages and causes of action arising out of the campaign’s use of the phrase ‘Arkansas Promise’ prior to the effective date.”

Jackson said the proposal “needed to be amended before we would consider it.”

“We are legally obligated to do nothing,” he said. “But we are happy to work with the university to try to alleviate their concerns to the extent that it doesn’t inhibit our right to free speech and to communicate a legitimate public policy proposal directly to Arkansans.”

The day after Halter unveiled his Arkansas Promise, ASU System Counsel Lucinda McDaniel pointed out to several system officials in an e-mail that ASU holds the trademark on the Arkansas Promise Scholarship, adding that Halter “is using this term for his proposal.”

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Ross of Prescott and Halter have said they intend to seek the Democratic nomination for governor next year.

Former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson of Rogers, state Rep. Debra Hobbs of Rogers and businessman Curtis Coleman of Little Rock have said they intend to seek the Republican nomination. Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe, who has been in office since 2007, is barred from seeking re-election under the state’s term-limits amendment.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 07/03/2013

Upcoming Events